(Andy Synn presents three more meaty morsels of home-grown heaviness from the UK)
I’d like to begin this article with a quick apology to the bands involved – I had every intention of writing about you sooner (especially those of you I’ve written about before) but life… uh… got in the way.
Still, we’re here now, and even though these reviews are coming post-release I hope they bring all of you some new fans (and hopefully some new sales too). You deserve it.
(Andy Synn presents a triptych of terrifying – and terrific – recent releases)
I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve always found dark music to be a great comfort during dark times.
And, since I am going through a bit of a dark patch myself right now I thought it’d be a good time to share some of the music which is helping me through it.
Who knows, you might just discover your new favourite band/album!
(With an introduction by Andy Synn, today we premiere a video of the Montreal band Présages performing the final two tracks on their 2021 debut album Pleurs.)
The debut album from Présages was one of last year’s hidden gems (and you can read more about it here).
By amalgamating elements of Death, Doom, and Post-Metal — aided and abetted by an almost Meshuggah-sized guitar tone — the eight tracks which made up Pleurs left a serious (and seriously heavy) impression on yours truly, and I’m pretty sure at least some of our readers had the same reaction.
It wasn’t just that the Canadian quartet were capable of conjuring such a stunningly dense, almost physically palpable, sense of sheer sonic mass with their music though, it was their ability to pair this level of riff-focussed (and, at key moments, blast-driven) intensity with an equally massive and weighty sense of atmosphere, as well as some subtle, mood-enhancing electronic elements, which helped them stand out from the crowd.
But you don’t have to take my word for it, as the band have asked us to host a “live in the studio” performance of the album’s climactic double-act – “Hiérophanie” and “Pleure” – which together represent the very best that Présages have to offer, and positions them as potential future leaders of the burgeoning “Atmospheric Death Metal” movement, alongside similarly awesome artists like Barús, Nightmarer, and Nero Di Marte. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn catches up with a few gems from last month which you may have overlooked)
September is always a busy time for new releases, and this year was no different.
Sure, they weren’t all good (in fact, I can tell you now, there was at least one major name that is definitely going to end up on my “Disappointing” list, and probably piss quite a few people off in the process) but there were a lot of high quality albums released last month and, even though we tried our best, we barely scratched the surface of what September had to offer this year.
So while I’ve attempted to cover a number of different bases with the four artists/albums I’ve chosen to write about today, I also urge you all to check out some of the records which we weren’t able to find space/time for, including new stuff from Acausal Intrusion, Dead Void, Kathaaria, Maunra, Mo’ynoq, Otus, Wayward Dawn, and Writhing (and many, many more that I’ve probably forgotten about).
(Andy Synn presents his first impressions of the fantastic new album from Thundering Hooves, which is set for release on October 7th by Mercenary Press)
Well, here we are… finally.
I say “finally” because, originally, this premiere/review was meant to go live yesterday, but due to a major behind-the-scenes mix-up (which involved me working with the wrong promo materials entirely… long story) we had to bump it back a day.
But, while this obviously means I haven’t been able to give it the usual in-depth investigation, perhaps we should treat this as something of an opportunity… after all, dear reader, how often is it that you and I get to experience an album for the first time together?
So let’s see what Radiance has to offer, shall we, and compare our notes at the end? Continue reading »
Recommended for fans of: Altar of Plagues, Ash Borer, Wiegedood
I had a lot of different options for this month’s edition of The Synn Report… almost too many, really.
But I decided to dedicate this to German Post/Black/Crust quartet Toadeater for two reasons:
So, without further ado… let’s get to the music, shall we?
(Andy Synn delivers a Death Metal-centric edition of The Best of British)
The UK Death Metal scene is a fertile place, no doubt about it.
Of course, such a bountiful harvest does sometimes make it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff (here’s a little bit of advice – stringing together a few generic grooves and mediocre, mid-paced blastbeats does not make you “the next Bolt Thrower”) but that’s just the price you pay for living in such interesting times.
One thing that separates these bands from the rest of the pack – in my opinion – is that they don’t play it safe. Sure, they’re standing on the shoulders of giants (aren’t we all?) but they’re taking risks – some big, some small – and pushing themselves in an attempt to climb even higher, demonstrating a level of ambition that, honestly, I wish more bands had instead of just settling for being just another fish in an increasingly over-crowded pond.
(Andy Synn takes a look behind the mask with Gaerea‘s new album, Mirage, out on Friday)
What’s in a name, anyway?
Well, according to some people… not a lot. And according to others… a great deal. Especially when it comes to genres.
Case in point, there are some people – by no means a majority, I should point out right away, though often the loudest and/or most obnoxious – who would balk at the very suggestion that Gaerea are a “true” (or “trve”) Black Metal band due to the fact that their sound is too “polished”, their visual aesthetic too “clean”, and so on.
And yet, for every one of them (I think of them as the Black Metal equivalent of the Amish – zealously convinced that a certain time period was the only “righteous” one, and that any progress beyond that should be shunned) there’s at least a dozen more for whom the very idea of questioning the band’s right to “belong” to the genre (of which they are so clearly and obviously a part) is patently ridiculous.
But the thing is… while much digital ink (and the occasional bit of non-digital blood) has been spilled over this argument, and many like it over the years… it’s obvious that Gaerea themselves don’t really care what you call them. They know who they are. And it’s the music, and not the labels which others put on it, which defines them.
(Andy Synn offers up three bite-sized yet blistering chunks of British Metal)
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I’ve not written about many EPs so far this year, instead choosing to focus my increasingly limited time on getting as many full-length albums written about as possible each month (and, even then, I’ve still fallen woefully behind on my “to do” list).
It’s a real shame, as the humble EP so often gets overlooked already, despite the fact that the format is where a lot of bands do their best work.
Today, however, I get to make up for this oversight – at least a little bit – while also adding yet another string of excellent releases to my ongoing “Best of British” series in the form of a triptych of terrific EPs from Grief Ritual, Iron Tomb, and Peasant.
(Andy Synn presents his thoughts on three titanic slabs of Death Metal, all due for release this Friday)
If last week was a big one for fans of the more “techy” side of the Death Metal spectrum, then this one is at least as big a deal for those whose tastes run towards the grittier, riffier side of things that one might, if one were so inclined, refer to as “Old School”.
And yet I’d rather not put too much emphasis on that particular term, as while each of these three bands/albums is obviously following a path laid down by the genre’s “Old School” originators, they’re also taking steps – some small, some large – to push things forward in their own way (something which, let’s be honest, can’t always be said about a lot of the OSDM “revival” scene).
But even if you don’t agree with the above statement I think you’ll still find a lot to love within this article, because every one of these bands kicks a significant amount of ass.